Villanelle of Change
Villanelle of Change
Original Text
Collected Poems, with an introduction by John Drinkwater (London: Cecil Palmer, 1922): 80-81. PS 3535 O25A17 1922 Robarts Library.
2 The yellow years have gathered fast:
3Long centuries have come and gone.
4And yet (they say) the place will don
5 A phantom fury of the past,
6Since Persia fell at Marathon;
8 Trembled and swayed with rapture vast
9(Long centuries have come and gone),
10This ancient plain, when night comes on,
11 Shakes to a ghostly battle-blast,
12Since Persia fell at Marathon.
14 The glory of Greek shame was cast:
15Long centuries have come and gone,
17 The first has fallen to the last:—
18Since Persia fell at Marathon,
19Long centuries have come and gone.
Notes
1] Marathon: town on a plain in Attica north of Athens on the Aegean sea where Miltiades defeated the Persian army in 490 B.C. Back to Line
7] Helicon: mountain in Greece near the Gulf of Corinth. Back to Line
13] Acheron: river in Hades. Back to Line
16] Hellas: Greece. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1891
Publication Notes
The Harvard Advocate (Nov. 25, 1891): 73.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Form